New Xonar Inbound Now With Hi-Def Decode Assist!

AWPC · 5 Jun 2008 at 22:08

Its called the Xonar HDAV1.3 and now uses an Asus tech called "Splendid HD Video" which is designed to take most of the load of hidef playback.

The Deluxe Version comes with the HDAV H6 expansion card that connects via a ribon cable and offers 6 analog outs.

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3324

Anyone care to guess as to what the pricing is going to be! I reckon well over £200.

james.miller · 5 Jun 2008 at 23:49

ive been waiting for this card. what a beast :cool:

theforce · 6 Jun 2008 at 00:07

Sound card that does video processing?! Wouldn't that cause problems since a person putting such a sound card in their PC's already have a video card that is capable of doing the same thing?
Anyway i am against the idea of using such a feature on a sound card. Only thing that is does it to increase price. They could skip the video feature and use even better components on the audio hardware which would be the logical thing to do.

james.miller · 6 Jun 2008 at 00:14

theforce said:
Sound card that does video processing?! Wouldn't that cause problems since a person putting such a sound card in their PC's already have a video card that is capable of doing the same thing?
Anyway i am against the idea of using such a feature on a sound card. Only thing that is does it to increase price. They could skip the video feature and use even better components on the audio hardware which would be the logical thing to do.

which is why there are two versions. 1 with the spdif and hdmi inputs and outputs only, and one with an accompanying daughter board with 7.1 analogue outputs.

there are questions i have about it, such as the latencies involved, but remember - the hdmi input could be the output from the graphics card. if they do it right, what you should end up with is the first device for the pc to combine 1080p output over hdmi (specifically form a high end gpu) with 7.1 lossless audio and HD audio bitstreaming

MystaEB · 6 Jun 2008 at 13:17

Looks good! Asus have been making the audio card market quite interesting recently.

clocka · 6 Jun 2008 at 17:57

some specs here:

The card is HDMI 1.3a compliant and offloads audio processing from high-definition video.

The Xonar HDAV1.3 can decode lossless audio formats from Blu-ray films including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio at 24-bit, 96-192 Khz. The card runs on a PCI Express x1 slot and can deliver up to 7.1 surround sound.

To reduce noise Asus uses analog audio with 120db signal-to-noise ratio with distortion as low as 0.0004% on all 7.1 channels. To handle the video portion of Blu-ray discs ASUS integrates a Splendid HD video processor that provides a clear image form Blu-ray titles without having to rely on the CPU of a computer.

http://www.dailytech.com/ASUS+Debuts+Worlds+First+HDMIReady+Sound+Card/article11987.htm

those specs are better than the best creative card

doesnt say whether it can do dolby digital plus 5.1, presume it can. obviously presume 5.1 and dts too.

clocka · 8 Jun 2008 at 08:25

some more info: http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=3328

jolie88 · 9 Jun 2008 at 15:00

this is great news !!

Mongy2130 · 9 Jun 2008 at 18:19

Only thing im worried about is it says u have too use the bundled software for play back and from trying out the arcsoft trial im not very impressed with it

clocka · 10 Jun 2008 at 13:14

yeah, hopefully powerdvd will add support for the card as no-one wants to use their software.

james.miller · 10 Jun 2008 at 13:41

powerdvd is a joke as well. id rather you total theatre but it doesnt as yet work on vista 64. still, i wouldnt be using the card for movies, but for the 7.1 192khz LPCM output.

Monkeynut · 10 Jun 2008 at 16:13

I'm thinking about this. Does it use the same chip as the older Xonar, and will it work on Linux?

oli collett · 10 Jun 2008 at 17:07

james.miller said:
powerdvd is a joke as well. id rather you total theatre but it doesnt as yet work on vista 64. still, i wouldnt be using the card for movies, but for the 7.1 192khz LPCM output.

What would be wrong with using it for say, providing bitstream output?

james.miller · 10 Jun 2008 at 17:13

oli collett said:
What would be wrong with using it for say, providing bitstream output?

what would be wrong with it? nothing as far as i know. i wouldnt need to though, my ps3 is a better solution for playing bluray

oli collett · 10 Jun 2008 at 18:57

james.miller said:
what would be wrong with it? nothing as far as i know. i wouldnt need to though, my ps3 is a better solution for playing bluray

I didn't think PS3 could do bitstream?

MikeHunt79 · 10 Jun 2008 at 19:04

Ooo, nice idea putting the op-amps in sockets so they can easily be rolled.

I'm quite liking the Xonar cards I must admit.

6 analogue outs would be lovely for a 3 way active stereo set up also, I'm guessing the chip could also be used for crossover duties?

Shame they didn't go for TRS connectors tho as they allow both balanced and unbalanced connections.

james.miller · 10 Jun 2008 at 19:12

oli collett said:
I didn't think PS3 could do bitstream?

it cant but that doesnt bother me when it can do full lpcm. im not bothered about two little lights on my av amp lol

oli collett · 10 Jun 2008 at 20:31

james.miller said:
it cant but that doesnt bother me when it can do full lpcm. im not bothered about two little lights on my av amp lol

Very good point sir.

But say you have an amp like a Yammy RXV2700 which doesn't do DTS-HD & DD-THD decoding, won't the receiver only process the standard DD track on a blu-ray disc? or am i missing something..

EDIT: i'm getting confused with bitstream and decode & bitstream. I don't really understand the point of the former